Comment archive – Page 378
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CommentMedia Watch: drugs debate
The sacking of senior government adviser David Nutt has resulted in the biggest media debate on illegal drugs for many months.
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CommentMichael White on health debates
Handy Andy Burnham, our youthful health secretary and Clark Kent lookalike, slipped out of Britain on Tuesday, heading west towards Washington - safely out of the row over home secretary Alan Johnson’s rash dismissal of David Nutt.
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CommentNicky Spencer on the pitfalls of email
Every magnificent technological advance in communications presents us with a double edged sword. The battle for the effective use of email is just beginning.
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CommentMichael White on unaccountable PCTs
Rare indeed is a Sunday night call by this column which yields a mention of primary care trusts and ancient Greek philosopher cum intellectual hard man Plato, virtually in the same breath.
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CommentAndy Burnham: embrace the new era of redesign to take NHS from good to great
Health secretary Andy Burnham explains the thinking behind his recent assertion that the NHS should be ‘our preferred provider’, setting it against a wider future of ‘re-engineered’ services - and a renewed sense of purpose among staff
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CommentPaul Corrigan: why Andy Burnham is wrong to rip up the NHS competition rulebook
Health secretary Andy Burnham’s rewriting of NHS competition rules undermines local decision making, conflicts with Labour’s manifesto and could breach competition law, argues Paul Corrigan. He claims commissioners should ignore it
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LeaderHSJ, 29 October 2009
HSJ, 29 October 2009HSJ, 29 October 2009 Click here to download a PDF of the magazine
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LeaderAndy Burnham’s flawed NHS regime will stifle commissioning ambitions
The row over NHS competition policy played out over the pages of this week’s HSJ goes to the heart of Labour’s leadership of the NHS.
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CommentYour Humble Servant: Andy Burnsley
‘Andrew Lansley on the other hand has a real problem. It’s the same one that Chris Smith and Frank Dobson had back in 1997. Like them, Andrew doesn’t have a health policy, because he is using his opponent’s one.’
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CommentMedia Watch: bingo wing treatment gets DH backing
The Nintendo Wii Fit Plus has become the first computer game to be endorsed by the Department of Health, the papers trumpeted this week.
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CommentSteve Preston on personality profiling
A personality profile delivers a remarkable insight into you, your characteristics and your communication style. A personality profile gives the opportunity to know who you are, what you can offer and, most importantly, how your managers and your team perceive you.
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LeaderTariff cap may limit some trusts’ ability to survive the recession
Concrete evidence of the impact of the collapse of public finances on the health service is beginning to emerge.
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LeaderHard cash makes Tory policy a soft target
As the Conservatives’ policy of handing commissioning cash to GP consortia comes under closer scrutiny, the lack of detailed thinking about how it will work becomes increasingly apparent.
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CommentAndy McKeon on NHS efficiency and pre-election sparring
The pre-election sparring has begun and the NHS will not escape some cuts. How tough things get will be a true test of how well money has been spent recently
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CommentMedia Watch: News of the World becomes preferred provider
It doesn’t happen often, but this week the intricacies of health policy have made it into the tabloids.
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CommentMichael White on public vs private
The line dividing the public sector from the private has been fragmenting for decades.
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CommentCally Bann: NHS car parking
Ten years at the helm and not a single complaint about car parking. Until the Boy Burnham sticks his nose in, that is.
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CommentSimon Stevens on the best healthcare system in the world
Torture the statistics until they confess. That seems to be the approach of many academics, journalists and policy wonks to the ideologically loaded question: which country’s healthcare system is best?
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CommentPete Mason on lessons for the NHS from hazardous industries
The NHS and hazardous industries, such as aviation, often use the Swiss cheese model of accident causation, or the “cumulative act effect”.
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LeaderStars of the health check ratings must not be eclipsed by failures
The annual health check reveals a stronger performance by primary care trusts, but provides worrying signs that improvement in acute trusts has stalled.